BKN 103, CLE 100

I tried writing the beginning of this recap a hundred times before I had any idea what to write. I still don’t, really. The Cavs keeping piling up losses, but it’s not the W-L column that hurts. It’s the individual defeats. I know that every team in the NBA loses, and the close ones are supposed to hurt. But man, was this one tough.

First Quarter: Brook Lopez, master purveyor of the flat-footed hook shot, dominated Tyler Zeller, he of the weak chest and propensity to be pushed around. Dominated to the tune of 19 points. Kyrie was out of sync early, and this one looked real ugly until C.J. Miles started raining threes. BKN 34, CLE 24

Second Quarter: Kyrie Irving remained mediocre. C.J. Miles, thankfully, remained supernova. His jumper has looked decidedly silky as of late, hasn’t it? The defensive effort by the Cavs in these 12 minutes was nothing short of horrendous. Jerry Stackhouse was hitting open jumpers, Marshon Brooks was getting gifted all sorts of open looks–hell, even Andray Blatche hit a three. BKN 61, CLE 53.

Third Quarter: Ew. The third quarter basically consisted of the Cavs and the Nets both missing a ton of shots, until the Cavs missed a few less shots near the end and somehow ended the period only down by five. But hey! Kyrie Irving hit two free throws, just in case, you know, you forgot he did anything other than miss contested jumpers over Deron Williams. Also, Gerald Wallace is a lot of fun to watch play basketball. He just kind of runs around and bangs into everyone, all the time. Also, Luke Walton is Bizzaro Gerald Wallace in every sense. The two of them exist to be polar opposites Neither can live while the other survives. BKN 79, CLE 74.

Fourth Quarter: Tristan Thompson and C.J. Miles were heroic, picking up the slack we sorely needed while Kyrie uncharacteristically continued to suck. They combined for 19 in the fourth, and seemed like the only Cavs interested in winning the game. Tristan, especially, showed fantastic effort on both sides of the floor, all the while rebounding like a maniac. His tip-dunk with a minute left cut the lead to three was unbelievable, and would have been Andy-esque, if Andy could jump that high. At the very end, Kyrie hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to one. Joe Johnson hit a pair, and Kyrie’s last heave rimmed out. BKN 103, CLE 100. Ballgame.

Player of the Game: Tristan Thompson had 17 and 15, with a pair of blocks and only one missed free throw. He was fantastic, and the big games have been coming often enough recently to convince me that he’s a really valuable piece for the future. He’s not nearly as good as J.J. Hickson, though…JOKE.

Highlights: Alonzo Gee continuing to get one breakaway steal-to-dunk a game, Tristan Thompson being a total beast, C.J. Miles unleashing high-volume efficiency on the Nets, Tyler Zeller on offense, did I mention Tristan Thompson?

General Notes: In case you hadn’t noticed, Byron Scott lives to confound Cavs fans with his unfathomable, ridiculous Kyrie Irving Playing Time methodology. As much as Kyrie sucked this game, there was no reason for Scott to hold him out for the first five minutes of the fourth. Our offense is stagnant without Kyrie in there, and the non-Kyrie effect is larger by several orders of magnitude in the final frame, when defense buckles down. Now, should our 20 year-old star be playing 40 minutes a game? No, but there are ways to stagger minutes, and I’d much rather have Kyrie miss a few minutes earlier in the game, if it meant he could play more of the fourth. We would have been down by a lot more when he came in if it weren’t for a few unlikely Jeremy Pargo plays. C’mon, Byron.

Also: Luke Walton was one of only three players to post a positive +/- for the night, but he didn’t pass the eye test. Everyone raves about his passing, but Walton tries a little too hard to thread the needle, and often passes up good looks to further his Steve Nash-without-foot speed impersonation. 30 minutes? C’mon, Byron.

23 Responses to “BKN 103, CLE 100”

Ah, the subjective eye test. Well, then I’ll guess I’ll counter with a “yes he did.”

Anyway, who else is there? With Samardo in the D-League and Varejao hurt, the options are 1. Play Thompson 45 minutes, 2. Play super small, in a game in which their 7-foot center is destroying us, or 3. Play Tyler Zeller more.

Option 3 was totally out of the question tonight for various reasons. Those being Zeller sucked all kinds of bad and was hurting the team far more than Walton and Zeller was in foul trouble the entire game.

Option 1 I could live with, I guess.

Option 2 would have created the same basic write-up of the game, in which we once again criticize the rotations.

Maybe 30 minutes was to much, but with Zeller playing like that and the next best option being Kevin Jones, I’m not totally upset with it. But I thought Walton played fairly well and did what he was asked to do.

Option 4 we play Kevin Jones and Jon Leuer. Let’s see what they can do. Walton is not part of our future, are they? Currently we are looking towards the futere, let’s give everyone a shot and see if they are viable NBA options. Heck, even gving Omri a little time at the four couldn’t hurt. It puts him on the floor (WHERE IS HE?!?!), and takes minutes off of Walton’s old legs and maybe that can keep him toether longer into the season.

Kevin Jones can play. He’s the type of player who will make a living of hard work– 2nd chance points and easy finishes around the hoop. He’ll struggle vs elite athletes, but after seeing him for 2-3 yrs at wvu I know he can play. Give him at least 15 min for a game or two and see.

Waiters shot has a lot of work that will need to go into it. Reminds me a lot with Lebrons early on — always shooting fadeaways. The more str8 up and down he lands the better hell be. In time my friends in time.

Kevin Jones is a good character 12th man kind of guy I could see us keeping on the team for smart blowout game management, when we get good enough to blow anyone out. Also with Zeller this is kind of the first time he’s really seen major minutes against a premier offensive center. Lopez has got post moves far superior to anything he’s seen in his career, I’m not surprised he struggled. He needs to spend a bit of time with tt in the weight room and join Thompson when he goes down to practice with Tim Duncan in the summer.

For a young team starting 2 rookies and 2 second year players, I thought playing a solid veteran team close on the road was a step in the right direction. If Kyrie makes the shots he normally does, we win this game. I can’t remember the last time I saw Kyrie miss so many open looks.

The Defense still needs a lot of work, but I see this thing coming together in the next few months. Cavs will end up with a lousy record, but will probably be a .500 team for the last 20-30 games of the season. And then will be a playoff team next year. Each loss teaches them the importance of 48 minutes, defense, and execution. They will get there. Great pieces in place.

I thought tonight was a positive. Granted, C.J. Miles isn’t gonna put up 33 points every night, but if he can shoot with some level of efficiency the rest of the season (~40% from 3?) that would be great. When you go on the road and lose to a pretty good team, with Kyrie maybe playing his worst game of the season thus far, only by 3, I’d say that’s a step in the rut direction.

Thompson is awesome. I’ve never been an advocate of this before, but I’m starting to think trading Andy would be the best idea, thanks to Tristan’s greatness since Andy has been out. Pair Tristan with a young, offensive minded center, whose skills complement each other well. Besides Demarcus Cousins, there have been rumors starting to go around of the cavs getting the man who killed us tonight, Brook Lopez. I think he and TT would be great complements to each other. Thoughts?

Korey, I saw those rumors about Lopez as well. I’m not so sure about that- he has a history of foot problems, which traditionally stay with centers for a long, long time. Also, he’s a ball stopper, and takes about 12 seconds to get off a shot- he’s really an iso center, not a pick and roll guy.

It’s hard to elaborate on Byron Scott because I thought he was a bad hire to began with. I think all of your main points the rotation, morality and I’m going to add preparation because the Cavs are being beat by teams that they have previously lost too. Furthermore, the Suns, Bucks, Pistons, and Warriors are just as inexperienced as the Cavaliers and their coaches have much less experience than Scott. Byron Scott is a great coach his record speaks for him. Scott is very patient, relaxed and satisfied similar to Doc Rivers. Theres your problem we need a young hungry high energy guy because teams play to the mood of a coach. Byron Scott would be a great coach with Celtics, Lakers, or Spurs but not with the young Cavaliers. If we learned anything from Brooklyn it is to make the coaching change now before it becomes senseless for what will become a losing season.

I am done caring about whether guys like Kevin Jones get minutes or not. 3 years of dumpster diving has resulted in Alonzo Gee and garbage. Signing actual NBA players in free agency and trades and through the first round of the draft is all I really care about.

As much as I hate Scott’s rotations; that wasn’t the real problem in this game. Kyrie had an off game, Zellar isn’t ready for the big minutes and Alonzo seems to be diminishing. I do agree it’s time for a Casspi sighting. He wasn’t really playing that bad before he got the flu. 30 min for Walt was a bit much. Scott drives me crazy that he MUST have someone in the doghouse every game. I can understand 1 or 2 games but Scott takes it to extremes! I can’t imagine how that can decimate a player and in turn effects his performance. Coaches need strict discipline but you also have to build up players as well.

This team can’t win when their best player sucks for the night. KI hit that big three after blowing a layup which was nice but the rimmer at the end was tough to stomach.

What I like about this season is that we keep loosing BUT the kids are growing up. TT is developing – Zeller got schooled so he can respond now. KI is just awesome. Waiters CAN be awesome assuming he develops a jumper (remember all those Ron Harper 7-21 nights). Miles is a keeper. Trade Andy for a big, keep Gee as a solid 2nd unit player, draft another stud, and put everyone not mentioned above out to pasture.

TT keeps putting up solid performances – I never thought i would see him shoot FTs like this.

At this point I think Casspi made a pass at Byron’s wife and Chris Grant won’t oblige his coach by releasing him, so he just won’t play him. I personally would like to see what Byron’s rotations would look like if he had a legit NBA bench and playing Luke Walton 30 min was NOT an option. I think getting going after his rotations is trying to place blame somewhere for them coming up short, when in reality this team doesn’t have the depth or experience to win games like this.

This game was actually much worse than the score. If Miles didn’t shoot out of his mind, The Cavs would have gotten killed. Still, it was worth it to watch TT top the best game of his career on the next night.

Aaron, I like the idea of the 2nd and 3rd trades, and I doubt Dallas does the first. I don’t know if I like trading an all star for 3 non-allstars though, even though I was blown away by Larry Sanders when I saw him play earlier this year, and think he’s got a very high ceiling. However, I wouldn’t trade Andy to Milwaukee. He’s been to great for us to relegate him to that.

Leuer, Kevin Jones, and Casspi should get some run of Walton’s getting 30 minutes. The deadhead simply can’t rebound.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

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